The Worst Summer Ever
by Padfootx3
Summary: Lily is not only stuck with Petunia and her muggle boyfriend Vernon this summer at their family's cottage, but now also with two more unexpected guests.
1. Chapter One

Lily stared in horror as Vernon Dursley, her sister's boyfriend, clambered into the backseat of the car next to Lily. Petunia followed, giving Lily a dispersive look across Vernon's beefy stomach.

Lily sighed, she had just returned from her 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a month ago, and ever since she had stepped off the train, her sister had been quite distant with her. Lily always had an inkling that Petunia was jealous of her, even though she always claimed Lily was a freak and she couldn't want to be a witch any less.

Petunia let out a shrill laugh. "Oh Vernon, you know I love that joke about the Japanese golfer…"

Lily rolled her eyes and stared out the window, this was going to be a long vacation. The Evans family plus Vernon Dursley were going on their annual summer trip to Lake Potonan. This year, they were staying for almost 4 weeks, and Petunia had whined about how she would miss her boyfriend far too much to separate from him for that long and gotten to bring him with her for the first two weeks.

Lily's parents climbed in the car. Lily's mother looked back at them, "Are you all ready to go? Lily dear, you forgot your…er…English book in the house. I just packed it in your bag; I know you were saying you had an essay to do." She said, staring at Vernon pointedly, who was fastening a button on his polo.

Vernon didn't know that Lily was a witch, and it was a great bother to hide it from him, as he was nearly always over the Evans household. Lily had to be very careful not to leave her school books or any of her favorite candies out for him to see, keeping them carefully locked away in her trunk.

"Thanks Mum." Lily said smiling. Her mother gave her a sad smile, knowing she was suffering, squished in the backseat with Petunia and Vernon.

Lily just shook her head and pulled out one of the normal muggle books she had brought along for the trip, sighing once again.

A/N Very short I know! It'll get longer and more exciting soon.


	2. Chapter Two

After 3 hours, but what felt like 10, the Evans family got out of the car at their family cottage around a small, glistening lake. Their cottage was white with red trim, and was one floor. There was a porch with a futon folded up to become a couch on the porch, and a wooden swing on the other side of it. The living room had a television that barely came in, and another couch. There was also a kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms.

They all grabbed their suitcases and started unpacking in the cottage. Mr. and Mrs. Evan's were in one room, Petunia was in another, Vernon would be on the couch in the living room, and Lily was sleeping on the stiff futon on the porch, as Petunia refused to share her room with her.

"Oh I forgot to tell you! The Williamson's aren't coming up this year, so another family has rented their cottage. I thought we'd go over and introduce ourselves before dinner." Said Lily's Father, as he struggled up the wooden steps to the porch, a rather large suitcase of Petunia's in hand.

There were only five cottages surrounding the lake. The Williamsons were an old couple who came up every year at the same time that the Evans did, their cottage was the closest to the Evans, right next door.

"Yes, I believe have a son your age Lily." said her mother knowingly. Lily rolled her eyes. She wasn't interested in muggle boys. It was no use trying to start a relationship with them as she would be gone to a wizarding school for almost the entire year.

"Yes, why don't you go introduce yourself Lily, as your unpacked already?" said her Father, as he heaved the suitcase past Lily in the porch into the living room. Lily looked down at her suitcase, which was stuffed hastily under her futon. She had put her pillow and her favorite blanket at one end of the bed. There wasn't much else for her to do.

"Alright." said Lily shrugging, walking off the front porch and going through the path that led to the next cottages front lawn. This cottage was almost the exact same as Lily's but with blue trim. She heard a couple talking on the front porch.

"Really now, I know he has to practice for Quidditch, being captain and all, but he can't expect that he won't be seen. All these muggles out on their boats and whatnot…"

Lily stopped dead, straining her ears to hear more as she walked more slowly towards the porch. She heard the breaking of a glass.

"Ah, dammit, Reparo! Sorry dea-." said a lady, who stopped dead as she noticed Lily staring at them.

The man glanced at the woman who looked panicked. He pulled out his own wand, "Oblivia-" He started, pointing at Lily, who was too quick and whipped out her own wand shouting "Protego!" His spell was blocked. Lily had thankfully just turned seventeen and was allowed to use magic outside of school, as she didn't really feel like having her memory wiped.

The surprised couple smiled at each other, looking relieved. "Oh hello dear, you gave us quite a fright!" said the lady.

"I'm sorry," said Lily, smiling. "My family rents the cottage next door every year and we thought we would introduce ourselves, but they're still unpacking, so they just sent me. My name is Lily Evans."

"Nice to meet you Lily! My name is George and this is my wife, Samantha. Our son James and his friend Sirius are around here somewhere, they go to Hogwarts, do you know them?" asked the man.

Lily's jaw dropped, dread indulging her body. There was no way. She thought she had gotten rid of James and all of his friends for two months.

"James…Potter…? And…Sirius Black?" asked Lily, staring blankly at what she could only expect were James's parents. Now that she looked closely the man looked quite like him and he had his mother's smile.

"Why yes!" said Mrs. Potter, laughing, "Are you friends with them? James!" She called into the cottage.

"I- yeah…I…" Lily stuttered…and then out came James, his hair untidy as ever, a scowl on his face; he was saying something to the second boy who followed him out.

"That git, there's no way that he should be the new Seeker. They didn't even give him a proper tryout! Just a load of Death Eaters..." Sirius nodded angrily.

James's scowl turned into surprise, and then pure joy as he saw Lily. He laughed and pointed her out to Sirius, who barked a laugh as well.

"Evans! What a pleasant surprise! Are you our new neighbor? Does this mean I get to see you in a bathing suit?" Asked James happily, earning a reproving look from his mother and another laugh from Sirius.

Lily didn't know what to say, she was staring at James and Sirius in horror. Her once peaceful vacation was already previously ruined by Vernon, but now these boys? She would rather feed herself to the giant squid then stay here another 4 weeks.


	3. Chapter Three

"Oh here come my parents now," Lily said, peering over the bushes dividing the properties. "And my sister and her boyfriend…they're all muggles, and my sisters boyfriend doesn't know I'm a witch, so if we could just keep that quiet…" Lily added quickly.

"Of course dear." Mrs. Potter said in a hushed tone. "Hello! You must be Lily's family! Nice to meet you!" She said as her and Mr. Potter got up and went to introduce themselves to the Evan's family.

James and Sirius snorted as they caught a glimpse of Vernon, who was clutching Petunia's hand and staring skeptically at the two boys.

"Mum, Dad, that's James Potter and Sirius Black…they both go to my school." Lily said widening her eyes.

"Oh…OH!" Lily's father said, catching on. He looked at James's parents, "And, did you both go to their school as well?" he asked, choosing his words very carefully.

"Yes, we did! And an excellent school it is!" said Mr. Potter jovially.

"Well, would you like to join us for dinner? The kids can get to know each other and take a walk, when they come back the food should be prepared. " Said Lily's Mom.

Oh please no, Lily thought. That was the last thing she needed right now. Petunia was already looking at James and Sirius with mingled fear and distaste, but mainly distaste. Vernon looked awkwardly around, not wanted to catch James or Sirius's eyes, who were both looking at them grinning.

"Oh that sounds great!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed. "Go on you lot, when you come back dinner will be ready."

Lily looked at the ground and started walking towards the dirt road that surrounded the lake, Sirius, James, Petunia, and Vernon following.

"So Evans! You just couldn't stay away from me could you?" James said grinning.

"Go snort some Floo, Potter." Lily said angrily.

"What's Floo?" asked Vernon curiously.

There was an awkward silence.

"It's a new drug." Sirius supplied. Lily and James actually laughed; Petunia and Vernon looked mildly confused.

"So where do you two go to school?" James asked eager to change the subject.

"Northbrook Academy." Petunia said.

"Smeltings." Vernon said proudly, puffing out his enormous chest.

"Never heard of it." Sirius said. James snorted at the look on Vernon's face. Lily fought back a smile.

"Well, where do you go then?" Vernon asked, not even knowing the name of Lily's school.

"It's called Hogwarts." Lily said carefully, eyeing Petunia, who was widening her eyes at her.

Vernon looked as though he didn't think "Hogwarts" was a proper name for a school.

"Oh." He said dismissively, unimpressed.

They were halfway around the lake, Vernon and Petunia started their own conversation, separating slightly from the three wizards.

"So how long are you up here for Evans?" Sirius asked her.

"Almost four weeks." Said Lily.

James and Sirius looked at each other and grinned. "We just got here yesterday, we'll be up here for the next four weeks as well, Remus and Peter will be coming up for the last week or two. We're all going to Diagon Alley together to gather our school stuff; you'll have to join us!" James said hopefully.

Lily laughed. "I'd rather poke my eyes out with my wand." She said quietly. Then a thought hit her. "Did either of you bring your owl?"

"Of course I did." James said.

"Could I borrow him?"

"It'll cost you." Sirius said seriously.

"I haven't got any wizard money, my parents give me muggle money that I exchange at Gringotts every year before school."

"Oh we don't want money." James said.

"Well what do you want?" Lily asked, not liking where this was going.

"How about a snog?" James said straight faced as Sirius burst out laughing.

"Let's get something straight Potter." Lily said, watching as Petunia and Vernon rounded a corner. Lily pulled her wand out again, facing James. "I've already turned seventeen, meaning I can hex you into oblivion legally and there's nothing you can do about it. So you're going to be lending me your owl when we get back, and other than that I will not be seeing your face at all this vacation. I want to relax, so I don't need all your funny business."

A smile crept on James's face, "Ah, but you've forgotten something Evans." He pulled out his own wand. "I turned seventeen last week."

There was a silence, and then-

" _Tarantallegra!" _Lily cried.

"_Rictusempra!"_ James yelled.

James started to dance wildly, Lily laughed, not because of James but because it felt as though a thousand hands were tickling her.

"_Lev-Levi-Levicorpus_" Lily gasped through fits of giggles, pointing her wand shakily at James. He was hoisted up and held in the air upside down. It created quite an effect, as he was still trying to dance madly.

"Okay Evans! You win! Now put me down!" James cried, looking down at Sirius who was howling with laughter.

Lily wasn't going to give up that easily. She sped off down the dirt road, passing Vernon and Petunia as she did. She caught a bit of the conversation they were having.

"Bunch of freaks if you ask me-"

"-No class whatsoever, we'll just ignore them."

Lily ran all the way back to James's empty cottage and into what she could only guess what his room, finding a large eagle owl perched in his cage. Lily looked around for a quill and parchment and started to write quickly.

_Alice,_

You would not believe who is spending the rest of the summer next door to us- JAMES POTTER AND SIRIUS BLACK. You must come up and save me. I'm sure my parents won't mind, but please send this owl back as soon as possible. I'm begging you Alice, I cannot deal with them AND Petunia's extreme muggle boyfriend.

Love from,  
Lily

Lily re read the letter and tied it to the owls leg.

"Go on, James said I could use you." Lily said to the owl, who, on her command hopped out the window and started flying speedily across the lake and over trees. Lily smiled. If Alice would be able to make it up to the lake for a bit this summer, things wouldn't be as bad as she thought.


	4. Chapter Four

**James's View**

After Sirius helped get James down and ease his frantic legs, they walked back, discussing plans of revenge.

"Well there's always the cloak; mind you we don't want to scare the muggles." Sirius said.

"I don't know mate, we'll think of something tonight." James said. "I really want to get on her good side this summer though. This could be the year."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Ever since you first saw her on the train and told me you were going to marry her, you've said every year 'could be the year' and so far none of them have been."

James sighed. It was true, but one day he really would win Lily over. James suddenly thought of something.

"Padfoot, did you ever think Voldemort might go after her and her family?" James asked.

Sirius's eyes darkened. "Well she is muggle born…but he's been keeping low for the past month. There hasn't been much fighting going on. If I didn't run away from home I could find out from Regulus." He practically spat the last words. James knew Sirius hated his brother and most of his family. "You'll have to ask your Mum and Dad to get the Ministry to put some protection on their cottage…and I expect their home as well."

James's parents were Aurors and some of the biggest blood traitors in the wizarding world. They had every enchantment set upon their cottage as possible to be sure no Death Eater could get to them.

"Yeah I really should…I'm just worried for when we go back to Hogwarts as well. You know that Slytherin lot are all Death Eaters in training."

"Yes, but Dumbledore's there. There's no way anyone would try anything under his crooked nose." Sirius said. "Plus you wouldn't think Snivellus would dare hurt his Lily Flower do you? Even if she can't stand the sight of him anymore. Don't worry about it Prongs, we'll have your parents put some charms on their house, and we'll relax this vacation. Who knows, maybe old Voldie-Poo has gone soft."

James smiled weakly. Voldemort had been at large for the past year or two. It was dark times for the wizard and muggle world, and James highly doubted that he would go 'soft'.

James and Sirius rounded a corner and nearly ran right into Petunia and Vernon, snogging. They broke apart abruptly when they realized they were not in private. James attempted to hide his laughter, but it was hard. Petunia couldn't look any less like Lily did, she was far too skinny, and had a face of a horse. It was really odd that she would pair up with such a porky guy.

"Sorry to interrupt." Sirius said, choking back laughter. "We'll just be going now."

They started to walk away, but as they did, James's wand slipped out of his pocket and rolled over to the couple, who stared at it, there was a silence as the they all tried to decide what to make of this.

"Oh look at the bird Vernon! Look! It's huge!" Petunia said in a high pitched voice, trying to switch his attention to anything other than the ground.

Vernon shrugged her off and picked up the wand. "What is this?" he asked, almost fearfully.

Sirius looked at James. James reeled his mind for an explanation.

"It's…a…a…very nice stick that we found!" James said lamely, snatching the wand away from Vernon. "We couldn't believe how straight and shiny it was…so we decided to keep it. Almost looks like a wand or something, too bad there's no such thing as magic." James shrugged and turned, Sirius followed.

When they were out of earshot Sirius rounded on him.

"You know your not going to win Lily over by telling that muggle about the wizarding world! You must be more careful Prongs. A shiny stick? Really?"

Sirius kept rambling but James didn't hear him, he was staring right over his shoulders. Lily was sitting on the dock that branched out over the lake in front of her cottage. She was staring out into the water, her hair blowing slightly in the wind. She looked…_sad_. Her eyebrows were knit together and her mouth in a slight frown. James wanted more than anything to go over and put his arm around her and ask what was wrong.

"-And I know I sound like Moony right now but I'm just trying to help! And…what are you looking at?" Sirius finished, noticing James wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to him.

"I- nothing, let's go." James said, snapping his eyes back to Sirius, who had turned around and was now looking to where James was a moment before.

"I should have known." Sirius said, sighing, shaking his head slightly. "C'mon mate, let's go in the house. I expect it's nearly time for dinner." He started walking off, and noticing that James wasn't following him he turned back.

"She'll be there in a few minutes." Sirius added. "Come _on."_

James reluctantly followed, taking his eyes off Lily, just as she turned to look over at him.


	5. Chapter Five

**Lily's View**

Dinner with the Potters wasn't as bad as Lily had imagined, but she was still in a slightly bad mood. She just didn't want to spend four weeks like this. Her dislike for Potter and Black had grown so much over the past six years. She very much preferred the other marauders, Remus, who she could talk to about books and who was much more mature than them, and Peter, who she felt bad for as James and Sirius bullied him sometimes.

After dinner, the Potters stayed for drinks, Petunia and Vernon went off for another walk, leaving James, Sirius, and Lily together. Lily was in no way going to deal with them, so she grabbed her Ancient Runes book out of her bag and sat on her futon, reading by her wandlight. Sirius and James shrugged at each other and hopped off the porch, heading back to their cottage.

Finally, peace. Lily thought, trying to engage herself fully in the book, but her mind always came back to how angry she was that Potter was here. She knew she was acting childish, and she didn't know why she always thought about someone that she disliked so much.

After reading the same sentence 5 times and retaining nothing, Lily shut her book and threw it in her bag in anger. She stared out the screen dividing the porch from the night beyond, listening to her parents and the Potters voices coming from the kitchen, they seemed to be discussing magical protection.

Lily sighed and stared over to the lake. A dark shadow of something big was silhouetted against the dark night. Curious, and eager to find something to take her mind off of Potter, she opened the screen door and stepped off the steps, walking towards the figure.

She raised her wand slightly, and then realized what she was looking at when she was nearly ten steps away.

A great stag was standing before her, looking directly at her. She expected it to scamper the second it saw her, as most animals do.

Maybe it has rabies, Lily thought dumbly, still staring at it, unsure of what to do. The stag held her gaze intently. It took a step towards her cautiously. Lily stayed put. It took another slow step, and another, and another. After a couple steps it was less than five feet away from Lily.

Just then she heard a loud bark. She looked over and saw a shaggy dog continually barking at the stag, and running off. The stag gave her another look and followed him.

Lily walked back to the porch, feeling as though she was dreaming. Stags don't hold gazes at humans, or run around with stray dogs…she shook her head.

"I'm going crazy." She muttered to herself, turning her wand in her hands.

Just then, she heard a scratching sound on the other side of the nearest screen to her. She looked over and saw James's eagle owl waiting patiently outside for her. Lily pulled open the screen excitedly and took the note from the owl's foot, giving him a pat on the head before he sped off.

Lily unfolded the letter and read.

_Lily,_

I'm so sorry to hear about your new neighbors. Just give them a good jinx to shut them up until next week when my parents say that I can come over! I'll be apparating, so I figure I'll just meet you about a half mile away and we can walk back home and tell that oaf Vernon that my parents dropped me off at the wrong spot if he asks. I can't wait to see the look on Sirius's face when he sees me. He knows I'm going to get him back from that time at the end of the term when he nearly took off my legs during our practical Transfiguration exam.

See you soon!  
-Alice

Lily found herself grinning as she finished the letter. She pushed open the door to the cottage and walked over to the table where the adults were sitting, talking happily.

"Mum, Dad, is it okay if Alice comes up next week?" Lily asked, knowing the answer would be yes.

"That's fine with me dear, but where will she sleep?" Her Mother asked.

"I can conjure a cot, or I can bring the extra bed in Petunia's room over to the porch with me." Lily said.

"It's very nice having a talented witch in the family." Her Father said, beaming at her proudly. The Potters smiled as well.

"Yes, James has told us about you! He says you're at the top of your year at nearly everything, and a prefect no less?" Mr. Potter asked her. Lily blushed. James talked about her? Most likely making fun of her for being so clean cut.

After saying goodnight to her parents and the Potters, Lily decided to go to bed early, and went to her futon, pulling the blanket over her and closing her eyes, immediately falling asleep.

After quite a while Lily was woken by Vernon snoring. She checked her watch. It was nearly two in the morning. She rubbed her eyes and looked out the porch screen, only to see a silhouette of the same stag she had seen earlier, this time looking directly at her from not far away of the porch door.

Lily shook her head and drifted off the sleep, thinking she was dreaming.


	6. Chapter Six

Lily woke up the next morning slightly happier than she had been yesterday. She laid on her couch for a while, staring at the low wooden ceiling, listening to Petunia and Vernon in the next room, who obviously thought she was asleep.

"I'm telling you, there's something funny about that Potter kid. And if there's something funny about him then there's something funny about all of them." Vernon was telling Petunia.

"I don't know what you're talking about Vernon. They're just weird. It's best we just ignore them, we don't want to mix with freaks."

"That's going to be quite hard to do, don't you think? Seeing as your parents and their parents are getting quite matey."

Petunia sighed; Lily could tell she didn't want to talk about the issue anymore. Lily didn't want to listen anymore either, not really wanting to bring any Potter related thoughts into her mind. She got up and grabbed clothes to change into in the bathroom, as she didn't have much privacy on the porch, and the last thing she needed was for Potter to be spying on her.

**James View**

"You snuck back out last night when I went to sleep!" Sirius accused him, as they started putting on their clothes and getting ready for the day.

"I did not, you can't prove that." James said, even though he clearly had. He originally was going for a walk but ended up watching Lily sleep for quite a while.

"Then explain how it is that when I woke up in the middle of the night and looked over at your bed you were gone?" Sirius said.

"Alright I did, I just needed some fresh air, I couldn't get to sleep." James knew Sirius didn't believe him, but was thankful when he didn't press the issue further.

They walked out to the kitchen to see their parents eating eggs and toast around the table, James's father reading the Daily Prophet, a concerned look on his face.

"What is it Dad?" James asked, grabbing a bit of toast for himself, as Sirius helped himself to eggs.

"Death Eaters." His Father said shortly. James looked quickly at Sirius, who caught his eye and looked back down. "It seems they attacked a muggle born family, killing all of them." His Father shook his head and put down the Prophet, rubbing his eyes. James's Mother took his hand in hers, as she stared fixedly at the window, her eyes blank.

"So are they going after muggle borns then?" Sirius asked.

"It appears so. We thought they were going to slow down as they had been laying low for so long…but apparently we were wrong. Listen boys, we really hate to leave you right now, but the Ministry needs your Mother and I to help track down these Death Eaters. We'll be gone most of today and probably into the night. Stay in the house, don't get into trouble, refrain from using magic as much as possible, and we'll send an owl if you're going to have to stay at the Evan's tonight." His Father said, sitting up and grabbing his traveling cloak, along with his wife's.

"What do you mean, stay at the Evans's? We're grown wizards; we can take care of ourselves." James said defiantly, and immediately wishing he hadn't. Why would he ever pass up an opportunity to have a slumber party with Lily?

"Yes, I guess your right son. Well, we'll send an owl later anyways to tell you how things are going. Stay out of trouble!" His Father called, halfway out the door.

"Yes, be safe please." His Mother said, giving him and Sirius kisses on their cheeks before following his Father.

There was a pause as they listened to the screen door shut behind the two wizards.

"Don't they know better by now that when they say 'keep out of trouble' we always end up in some anyways? Really…why do they bother?" Sirius asked, a smile creeping on his face.

James grinned and looked at Sirius. Today would be fun.


	7. Chapter Seven

**A/N **Thank you all for your nice reviews! They mean a lot to me! Sorry my chapters have been so short, I know that must be quite bothersome. I'll try to lengthen them up a bit! This one will be especially long because I expect I won't be able to update tomorrow. ****

James's View 

"Good afternoon my dear Lily Flower." James said to Lily, who was sitting on the dock, her feet dangling in the water, reading _Hogwarts, A History_. She looked up at them and rolled her eyes, continuing to read.

James sat on one side of her and Sirius on the other. "Can I help you two?" Lily asked, still looking at her book.

"No, but I expect we can help you." Sirius said, grinning. "We have a plan to give your sister and her boyfriend a little scare."

"No! Petunia already hates me. I don't want to give her any more reasons to." Lily said seriously, looking up at Sirius. "Really guys, don't."

"Well do you ever wonder where they go all day?" asked James. Lily looked at him and shook her head. The sun made her eyes shine brighter than he had ever seen them, and made her hair glow. James was lost for words for a moment, but recovered quickly.

"Today we followed them because we were curious, and my parents aren't home so they couldn't stop us. They went the opposite way from the lake and it turns out they found quite the secret spot. It's a little pond across the road and in the wood a bit. There's a nice little tree fort we reckon some muggles made and it's very cool." James said, forcing himself to take his eyes off of Lily's.

"So?" asked Lily.

"Well think about it! Wouldn't it be nice for us to be able to hangout there? But obviously we won't get a chance if they're going to be there every waking moment…but if we scare them off a bit…" Sirius looked at Lily hopefully.

"I told you guys! We can't use magic against them, Petunia would never speak to me again and Vernon doesn't even know about wizards!"

"No, no, no! Not magic. I don't know if old James here has ever told you, but he has an invisibility cloak." Lily widened her eyes. "Muggles believe that ghosts are scary invisible things right? What if we made them think that place was haunted by going under the cloak? They would never know it was us!" Sirius said happily.

James could tell Lily was seriously considering this. Lily looked at them both. "Well…say we did do this…who says I'm going to want to hangout with you two at this spot? What if I want to study sometime?"

"Then we will let you have it! Trust us, we're really not bad guys, as long as you're on our good side." James winked. Lily scoffed.

"Alright then, so…when are we going to carry out this plan?" Lily asked, James could tell she was trying to hide her excitement.

"Shall we do it tonight? Perhaps…before bed? I guarantee they'll sneak off for a late night snog." Sirius said, looking quite disgusted.

"Excellent." Said James grinning.

**Lily's View**

It was very much unlike Lily to agree to do something like this. She was very nervous, but still excited as she pushed open the screen door and walked across her dark lawn to the Potters.

The only logical reason that she would agree to do something like this was the fact that she had been reading _Hogwarts, A History_ for over 3 hours when James and Sirius asked her, causing her to already be quite bored and in the need for something exciting. Having a place like that to do her essays would be quite peaceful. Also, she was still feeling bitter towards Petunia and Vernon and she couldn't help but think this would be quite enjoyable for her. Lily had never done anything like this before and couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding as she opened the screen door to the Potter's cottage, finding Sirius and James huddled over a letter.

"Oh hello, Lily Dear." James said, looking up from the letter, grinning. "We've just received an owl from my parents, they're going to be a couple more hours at the Ministry, they think they have a lead on some of the Death Eaters who attacked that family."

"Oh well that's good." Lily said. She was feeling a little nervous; she was not used to working _with_ these marauders.

"Yes, oh I hope it's Bellatrix." Sirius said happily, also looking up from the letter. "My filth of a cousin." He added, to Lily's confused expression. She nodded, still nervous.

"Alright, so here's the plan. We are going to walk to the place where Petunia and Vernon will be. Lily will cast a silencing charm on us before we go so they can't hear us walk. Lily and I will be under the cloak, and Sirius will keep hidden behind a tree or something. And…I guess we will improv from there. Ready? Let's go!" James said enthusiastically, giving Sirius a high five.

"Wait, so we don't even know what we're going to do once we are there?" asked Lily, panicked.

"Well no…the best plans are always improvised!" Sirius said, walking past Lily out to the yard. Lily was feeling a bit skeptical but she followed and cast a charm to silence their walking.

"Okay, so Lily, if you would just slip under this cloak with me, and Padfoot, could you run ahead and find a good tree to hide behind?" James gave Sirius a wink, which Sirius returned as he jogged off ahead.

James and Lily started walking, the cloak covering the both of them fairly well. If they had tried to add Sirius under it, their feet would have definitely shown.

"Are you scared Evans?" James whispered in her ear after a couple of steps.

"No." Lily said, a chill running down her spine at James's voice. They walked past the dirt road and into a wood, filled with dark trees. After a few more steps a small glistening pond came into view. Two figures were huddled together on a log facing the pond, and as promised, a small but stable tree house was sticking out of a tree above them.

Suddenly, James tugged Lily's hair, Lily gave a surprised yelp. The couple jumped and looked around, alarmed.

James stifled a laugh. Angrily, Lily kicked him in the shin. He let out a groan of pain. Petunia got up with Vernon, they were both looking everywhere for the sign of the noise.

"Who's there?" Yelled Vernon in a slightly panicked voice.

"My…name…is…Billius…" moaned a voice from a different corner of the pond, which could only be Sirius.

"And I am Sara…" Lily said, surprised at herself that she was improvising, and disguising her voice the best she could.

"Finally, I…am…Vernon…" James said. Lily went into a fit of silent laughter. Vernon looked positively terrified.

"Leave this place…let us rest…in peace…" Sirius said, his voice much lower than usual. "Don't come BACK!" Sirius yelled the last words. Lily and James couldn't contain themselves, they were both doubled over with laughter. Thankfully, the sound of Petunia and Vernon's screams of terror tuned them out. They both sprinted past Lily and James under the cloak, Vernon struggling to keep up, stumbled and fell on his bottom a little past James and Lily. He heaved once, and couldn't get up, Petunia long gone, Lily thought he might just start rolling back to the cottage when he grabbed onto a tree limb and pulled himself up, nearly snapping the limb in the process.

Once they were out of sight, James whipped off the cloak, "Excellent job Padfoot! Nicely done!"

Sirius emerged from a row of dark trees across the lake, grinning. "Thank you Prongs! I loved the name choice, that was classic. And our newcomer, Miss. Evans! Very well done, I didn't expect you to say anything. You can have a very spooky voice when you want to."

Lily smiled wide. She had to admit, watching Petunia and Vernon run from them was a mood lightener.

"It looks like this spot is ours!" James said, throwing his arms around both Lily and Sirius. Lily removed his arm immediately. She may have had a good time but that still didn't excuse the fact that Potter was…Potter.


End file.
